Inside Track: Sushmita Dev's 'Political Guide' Himanta Sarma Scripted Her Trinamool Exit

A picture is worth a thousand words. Within minutes of the news of Sushmita Dev's resignation from Rajya Sabha and Trinamool Congress, came her images with Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. The two leaders smiling to the cameras. Images left little to imagination.

"There's only an Assam connection," a beaming Dev told the curious reporters after her surprise somersault.

Asked about her political future, Dev said she does not need anyone's validation and that her political choices "are hers to make".

"I have the right, in a free country and a democracy, to decide which party I will support, what kind of politics I will do, and whether I will do politics or not," she declared.

However, sources close to Sarma indicate that it will only be a 'matter of time' before Dev joins the BJP officially.

Sarma has played a key role in Dev's decision to quit the TMC, sources told NDTV.

Dev has also publicly acknowledged Sarma as her 'guide'. "I took advice from him," she told reporters after meeting the chief minister.

Sources added that the Assam Chief Minister has discussed a road map for her return to state politics.

The two leaders have a history. More than a decade ago, when Himanta Biswa Sarma engineered a rebellion against the then Assam chief minister late Tarun Gogoi, Sushmita Dev was among the Congress MLAs who supported Sarma's call for leadership change.

Sources say that Sarma had offered Dev a BJP ticket from Silchar in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. This was the same time when Jyotiraditya Scindia had switched sides. She denied the offer and lost the poll as Congress candidate.

Even before quitting the Congress, Dev had spoken to Sarma, according to the people close to the leader.

In her move to the Trinamool Congress in 2021, sources indicate, Sushmita Dev had kept Sarma "in the loop".

Sources in the party indicate that she is likely to join the BJP within a week and would get involved in the party activities in Assam's Bengali dominated Barak Valley region.

With Sushmita Dev's exit from Trinamool and her likely entry into the BJP, leaders who were Himanta Sarma loyalists during his Congress days have moved to the BJP. Former Congress leaders from Dev's turf of Barak Valley such as Rajdeep Goala and Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha are already in the BJP. Dev's joining would complete the circle.